Playtime
by Mint18
Summary: Whilst Regina is in mourning the Evil Queen takes over and begins to wreak havoc on those that Regina hold dear. With a little help from a lost love one can Regina regain control over herself before the Queen kills everyone she loves?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: WARNING THIS DOES NOT HAVE A HAPPY ENDING.**

Everything has frozen. She can't see, she can't hear, she can't think. All there is, is Robin's body hitting the floor.

There's not even any pain. Not at first anyway. And all she can do is try to remember how to breathe. She doesn't remember falling, though she will have a bruise to prove she hit the floor. She doesn't remember Zelena killing Hades. It's all gone. All there is, is the numb realisation that the man she loves is dead. Her Robin. There will be no daring rescue mission to the underworld. No afterlife. He's gone. And she can't save him.

So much for the hero's journey. So much for 'true love' and happy endings.

It is the evil queen who picks her up from the floor. The evil queen who shrugs it off and allows her to walk out of there and survive the funeral. Because she is the one who doesn't care, who thinks death should find them all and that Robin made Regina weak. But Regina doesn't care either. In fact she almost relishes in letting the evil queen take control because it means that she doesn't have to think. She just lets herself be pushed into the back of her own head and mourns.

At first people don't really notice the difference, Regina is still there after all, she just isn't really paying attention to any of the going-ons around her. Everyone just leaves her alone, they let her stay in her crypt and mourn, because they think that's exactly what she needs- time.

'Don't worry,' The Charmings say, 'she'll come round, after all it's not like she's the queen she used to be.' But mourning isn't exactly she's doing. The queen doesn't care much for that and eventually people start to catch on that something isn't quite right. But it's not until she starts throwing Henry out that people begin to worry. People didn't exactly expected her to let the Charmings in, nor the Saviour once Regina found out that Hook had returned. But they all had their hopes pinned on Henry. After all he needed her as much as she needed him.

But the queen wasn't having any of that. She didn't buy their sob story. She just wanted the heroes to pay for Robin's death.

Regina sat in the back of her own head and cried. She knew that people were calling for her, that they were trying to help. She knew that they cared but she didn't. She couldn't. She had lost too much. All she had wanted was her happy ending. She had come so far, so far. She had tried so hard to be a hero and to see the good in people including herself. But in the end it hadn't seemed to matter, it had all come to nothing. So she ignored them all and went back to numbly counting the minutes as they passed as tears slipped silently down her cheeks.

Regina isn't sure how many days into her silent vigil she is when the memories begin. She can't exactly escape them, perhaps if she had hidden somewhere other than _inside her own damn head_ she could have done but here they surround her. They overwhelm her. And it certainly doesn't help any to hear his voice taunting her with declarations of love from the past. She covers her ears and sobs louder, trying in vain to drown out the dead man she loves.

The queen isn't idle in the time she has, as Regina retreats further back into her own head, she prepares for the show down that will finally show the heroes exactly where they can shove their happy endings. Though for the sake of her plans, she learns how to keep up appearances. She joins the Charmings for dinner at Grannies' with their infant, another unnecessary product of true love. She picks Henry up from school and cries with Little John and Roland over the symbolic arrows on Robin's grave. But all the time she is looking inwards, keeping an eye on Regina. Through her tears she is rebuilding her powers and preparing to rip out of all their hearts.

If the villains can't have happy endings even when they try so hard to be the goddamn heroes, then she's going to destroy the happy endings of those lucky enough to have them, right along with her own.

Let them suffer like she has. Let them know death.

Except that suddenly, out of nowhere, there's a new voice in her head, a new presence that has seated itself right next to the sobbing Regina.

' _I was a hero for you milady, just as you learnt how to be a hero for me. We both learnt the difference between what was right for us and what was right for everyone. My life was ended by someone who was unable to tell the difference. He had love but he still choose hate. Don't choose the same, don't destroy the lives of others the way mine was.'_

The queen leaves her fellow mourners in a tell-tale puff of smoke. She goes back to her crypt and paces. Regina, she hopes has noticed nothing, but this, new development, might start to bring her out of mourning, if she finds out. Just in case, she leaves a false trail for her to find inside their mind and starts throwing memories at her instead.

She was weak the last time she allowed Robin Hood to get inside her head, to make her 'good.' But no matter. She will not make the same mistake again. She is almost ready. She only needs Regina locked away for a few more days and then she will take her vengeance on anyone and everyone who ever touched the people she loved.

' _You love these people.'_

Not anymore.

' _You're letting your anger blind you, your majesty. Look around again. These people love you, they want nothing more than for you to be happy.'_

No they don't, otherwise they would have found a way to save Robin, instead of celebrating Hook's return. Or better yet, Snow White would never have ratted out a different love. She could have been a hero from the start. But the people who call themselves as such ruined it for her, so now she plans on returning the favour.

She is almost, almost ready. As much as it pains her, she will have to use Henry as bait. She still loves the boy, that is almost the only thing her and Regina have in common anymore, so she has to keep him safe, but he's also unfortunately very necessary to lure the heroes into her trap. He is the key to bringing the rest of them down.

Regina startles when she feels someone take her hand.

' _Regina, look at me.'_

He's here. How is that possible? It can't be but right now she isn't sure she cares because he's _here._ Somehow he has a way to return to her. And he's telling her how much he loves her and she never wants to hear anything else again. She will stay locked inside her head forever if it means being with him.

But that's not what he wants.

' _Regina, my love, your friends are in trouble. You need to save them.'_

But all she wants is five more minutes with her love, five more minutes to drink him in before he is gone again forever.

'I love you so much.'

' _I love you too.'_

'I'm so sorry this happened to you. Why didn't you just let me go Robin? You could have had a life with your daughter.'

' _Regina, we both know this world needs you far more than I. You are going to save the whole world one day my love, but for now, just start with saving your friends.'_

'Robin, I can't, I can't lose you again.'

' _My love I'm not going anywhere I will stay right here with you, but Henry is danger too Regina, you need to save them all from yourself. The queen has been allowed out for far too long.'_

He's right of course and the truth is like ice water in her veins. In her mourning for the man she loves she has allowed a villain free reign to hurt everyone else she has ever cared about.

Her world is in danger.

She has to go and save it.

' _Regina! Regina? Wake up!'_ 'Regina, please, please don't do this!'

The calls are coming from all around her, they echo and bounce from both outside and within her head. At first she is disoriented but slowly she breaks through the final walls she used to lock herself inside her head. Finally, finally she surfaces and with a rush of horror takes in the carnage of the scene around her.

She stumbles, at last in full control of herself again and the defensive position she was holding falters, the fireball in her hand going out.

It's what is in her other hand that has her heart racing though.

Dust.

As she stares at it, maniacal laughter begins to ring out inside her head.

What has she done?!

The defensive position makes sense as she takes in Henry in a cage behind her and the saviour lying at her feet with blood in her hair. Charming is frozen magically in place next to Henry's cage with a look of horror on his face. He has what looks like guyliner's hook clutched tightly in one hand, though the man himself is crouched beside Emma. Snow is nowhere to be seen, which to Regina seems strange. Until with a jolt of horror she realises where exactly Charming is looking. Not directly at her, no, he's looking straight at her hand.

She was too late.

 **Please direct all shock and hate filled comments towards the review section, it is well deserved and I apologise, this was supposed to be fluff. I promise that is coming, next up on** _ **A One Time Thing**_ **Killian and Emma's wedding vows.**

 **Outlaw Queen fluff to follow and I promise Regina will not be killing anyone. Minty xx**


	2. Chapter 2

The shock of trying to absorb two deaths in as many days hits the town hard. A general sentiment of complete disbelief had settled over the town as they tried to come to terms with how they could ever lose one of their beloved pariahs of justice (let alone two.) No one could believe that anyone so fundamentally _good_ could be vanquished by evil. It just wasn't right.

She doesn't feel it though. Any of it. This is just not a loss that Regina can come to terms, she can't take anymore grief. In fact she doesn't feel anything like it. If anything she feels quite the opposite. The death of Snow White has set her free. Her death has given her more peace than she has felt since Daniel died.

And she hates it. How can she be happy? She killed the most beautiful soul in all the realms and she's _happy_. It is a mockery of the depth of emotion she felt (and still feels) for the loss of Robin and a blatant insult to the woman who forgave her again and again for the evil she carried inside her.

She can't even begin to mourn Snow because her death has brought her so much peace she can't bring herself to regret killing her. The evil queen is sated. And for the first in a long time she is quiet. Well almost. Regina can hear her gloating inside her head, but she doesn't _care_ , how can she when she is no longer at war with herself? No longer feels conflicted by every decision she makes? The darkness within her is feeding on and growing from the joy of the utter annihilation of her life-long enemy and she doesn't care. Regina has never hated herself more.

The queen is quiet in the back of Regina's head. She knows when she has to wait, knows when patience is required to make the kill, and oh is this that one she is destined to make. She _will_ bring Regina down. It's time for her _goody goody_ nonsense to die, to become extinct, to be in the past. Regina's hatred, however, is an interesting development and one she didn't see coming. But it is certainly one she can use to her advantage, if Regina is angry then it shouldn't take much to push her over the edge, even if it is _her_ the hatred is directed at, the darkness knows how to get its way.

The queen is up to something, Regina is sure of it, she can hear the words of hatred the queen is spewing inside her mind. She is trying viciously to resurface. She wants to kill again. And again. She wants her happy-ending loving, good-doer enemies gone. She wants this town burnt to the ground, ravaged until it is unrecognisable and the term 'happy ending' is meaningless.

The queen is miserable, trigger-happy and seeking revenge. She is delighted that her life-long foe has finally been vanquished but she is not happy, she is sated, sure, but now she's had her taste and she wants back for more.

 _Do not fear my love you will get through this._

Robin. He has been so quiet since she regained control of herself that she was becoming worried that he had faded away, so worried that the queen had locked him somewhere she couldn't find him. But he's here and she is so grateful that he is still with her in some capacity.

But right now it is just another reminder of her failures, of her mistakes. Not only does she now have to live with the evil queen voicing every blood-thirsty thought she has, but she has to live with the ghost of the man she loves, he was the light to her dark and now he balances out the queen inside her head, but he is still gone, still dead. And it just another reminder of another love that she couldn't save, just another thing she couldn't get right.

Regina lets a single tear slide down her cheek. It is the first sign of remorse or regret she has managed to muster up since she awoke to a scene of utter chaos and destruction-her own doing of course. She savours it while it lasts, anything is better than the bitter sweet mix of emotions she feels over Snow's death.

She hasn't seen any of the merry band of heroes since the fight she inadvertently found herself in the middle of and can't be sure she wants to. She does not feel the need for an apology. After all what good would it do? She's monster again now, just like maybe she always was. Who was she kidding with the hero thing? Blood has always been much more her colour.

 _Do not give up my love, they will forgive you in time. No one blames you for this milady._

If only it were true.

Regina wonders through the empty town- it is both a blessing and curse that everyone is at Snow's funeral- and tries desperately to find the meaning behind her mixed emotions. There's literally nothing left here for her now. No one left who cares about her. And she hardly expects Emma to let Henry anywhere near her after that display. That loss of control has cost her so much. And yet if she goes back, if she barricades herself inside her head again to hide from the added pain she's feeling now, it could cost her so much more.

So what's an ex-villain, who became an unlikely hero, who may now be a villain again supposed to do? Wondering around in apathy certainly isn't helping anyone, especially herself. But what else can she do? She is almost as hated back in the Enchanted Forest as she now is here. And if she allows herself to feel properly, to explore her complex, contradicting and ridiculously convoluted emotions, then who's to say that the queen won't come out to play again? What's to stop her killing another one of her friends if she can't handle it?

Nothing.

'Oh, Robin. What have I done?' She must appear crazy talking out loud to the ghost of her lover who now only exists inside her head, but she doesn't care. She is beyond caring about what anyone in this stupid town or anywhere else thinks about her now.

Maybe it would be better for everyone if they just came for her with their pitchforks. At least if she's dead the evil queen won't be able to hurt anyone else ever again. Besides it's about time she faced the music and paid for all her crimes.

 _Don't give up yet my love, there is still so much you can do._

Regina just laughs.

The queen doesn't give up just because she has been locked away again. Oh, no. Regina has proven that she can be broken, that evil can triumph over good and _win._ Now she is done waiting for an opportunity, done looking for some other trigger that can bring Regina crashing down. Because she has already found it. In fact she has had it all along.

Regina is a broken woman after all and some wounds never heal. Some wounds can reopen so easily when just the right amount of pressure is applied…

And what's an evil queen to do but provide that little push?

If there was anywhere for Regina to run to escape her feelings she would. If there was any way for her to overcome her actions she would. If there was any way at all for her to come to terms with and accept all the damage she had done and all the lives she had ruined, she is sure she would have found it by now. Henry had helped for a little while, but Regina can't help but remind herself that whilst Henry was growing up, he was surrounded by an entire town full people she had cursed to never know their true identities. All because of a teenage, doll faced girl.

There is no way past her past. There is no way to hide from it or escape it. But she can't face it either. The evil queen and all her desires for vengeance still sit in the back of her head and they could so easily escape. They already have.

That can't happen. Not again. Regina cannot allow one other person to be hurt by her actions. Maybe StoryBrooke needs another death. Just one more to ensure that any and every other death in the future only occurs from natural causes.

What's that they say about everything happening in threes?

Her heart is pounding, her pulse roaring in her ears. It's not loud enough to drown out the voices in her head though. She can still hear them. The queen laughing. Robin's begging.

' **Oh you can't get rid of me that easily Regina, you know that. Don't think I won't stop these foolish actions of yours. Just let me out to play again, you'll see. I'll make it all better, all your problems will go away…Come now dear, don't be silly, we still have so much work to do, you and I…'**

 _Regina no! Please no! Don't just don't please! So many people still need you! I'm still here for you… Regina!_

 **A/N: That is all for now dear readers, don't say I didn't warn that this doesn't have a happy ending. But don't worry it's not over yet! Thank you to everyone who messaged me and asked me to keep this going, I love you all and thank you for the awesome feedback! This was only supposed to be a one-shot but you've really got the creative juices flowing now! As always don't forget to review and I'll see you all next week! Minty xx**


	3. Chapter 3

When Regina awakes she is lying in a hospital bed surrounded by all the people she loves.

 **The family of the woman you killed.**

There are tears on the faces of all of those around her and Regina can't help but wonder how they can even stand the sight of her. She can't stand the sight of herself after all. She can't get this evil woman out of her head and she can't rid herself of the guilt she feels over everything she's done- like killing purest soul that ever walked the Earth or any other realm.

Rumpelstiltskin was right, she has become a monster. Just like him and her sister and her mother before her. All these faces above her with mourning written into every single tear track that hasn't dried is yet another reminder of everything that she's done wrong.

Are they going to kill her? She kind of hopes they will, it what she deserves after all, especially seeing as she has so clearly botched the job herself.

But wait; why isn't she dead? She should be. She should most definitely be dead after what she did to herself. Which leaves only one explanation…

The Queen.

That monster inside her head has done something. And with this realisation comes another; the scent of magic is everywhere around her, it is clinging heavy and pungent to everyone crammed inside her hospital room, and second, she's tied down, wrists bound in magically draining handcuffs and tied securely to the rails on either side of the bed she lies in.

But how?

If the Queen got out, if Regina is still only alive because of the Queen's quite frankly miraculous self-preservation skills, why isn't everyone in this hospital room dead? How did she reassert control? Was it the cuffs? She certainly doesn't remember any fighting but surely there must have been and Robin…

Where the hell is Robin?! That last realisation chills her to the bone the most, there is a hole in her head where once her former lover's voice sat. Her last connection to the man she loves is gone.

And that's when Regina loses it.

She begins to thrash and scream and wail because she can't take any more pain, she can't handle the total loss of control that has forced its way into every single corner of her life. Robin, Snow, Daniel, they're all gone and it's all her fault.

 **This is why we never loved anyone when I was in control dear, it's so much easier to hate than love. The repercussions are so much easier to deal with.**

Regina ignores her, it takes everything she has left not to give up there and then and let the Queen kill everyone left in the room including herself.

She knows that those animalistic noises must be coming from her but she is too far gone to care, to far down in the watery depths of her own personal hell for it to even register that there is anyone left in the room to watch her suffer.

The one tiny rational part of her brain left wonders though what this is doing to Henry. Wonders how he is coping with the events of the last few days. Henry. Her one saving grace. The one thing she hasn't totally screwed up, because whether of her own doing or his genetic inheritance, Henry is fundamentally, quintessentially _good._ And it breaks her to think that now, in spite of everything she did to try and protect him from herself, every instinct she fought, somehow despite how desperately hard she tried to be good, she still ruined Henry's life. There is no coming back from this, her love died and she ruined Henry's life completely. All she managed to do in the end was prove to him that she was every bit as awful, as _evil_ , as everyone had always said she was.

Rotten to the core.

Eventually Regina feels her breathing begin to slow and knows her latest panic attack is beginning to subside as an eerie calm sweeps over her. She can focus again now, which means unfortunately that now it is time to face the people in the room surrounding her.

 **I'm going to kill them all. I'll make them suffer for everything they have taken from me.**

One by one she faces them, she looks each of them in eye and tries to decide who it will be that will carry out her death sentence.

Emma meets her stare with one of her own, Hook glares, his arm securely wrapped around Emma's waist as if daring her to touch his beloved Saviour. There is the Blue Fairy and Tink, and surprisingly Zelena standing in the corner, looking every bit as lost as Regina feels. There are a few other inconsequentials, a warden and nurse, Gold, Regina notices is mercifully absent, though no doubt he will hear about all of this, it is his way after all.

And then there is Charming. The man who has lost everything. Tears slide down her cheeks as she meets Charming's gaze. After everything she put him through back in the enchanted forest, after how far they had come, for it to end like this…

 **With us victorious.**

Regina can hardly stomach it. There has been so much history between them, so much bloodshed. And yet David isn't glaring at her, there doesn't seem to be any malice in him at all… only acceptance. And as she stares at him, tears well up in his eyes too and begin to slide down his cheeks, mingling with her own on her already damp sheets. And then suddenly he is embracing her and they are crying together, mourning the loss of the woman who was in many ways the centre of both their lives, the very reason for their stories in the first place.

The tears dry as quickly as they came.

'Regina,' David's voice is weak and croaky from disuse and all the crying, 'I'm so sorry.'

He's sorry?! Regina is sure she just felt her jaw hit the floor, Charming, he's sorry? But how and why?!

'After Robin, we should've known that something like this might happen, we should have looked out for you a little more and we want you to know how sorry we are for everything you've been through these last few weeks, hell throughout the last forever.' Charming looks so sad, so genuinely sorry, that Regina begins to laugh hysterically.

'You're sorry?! David, there's a malevolent presence in my head that wants to kill you all, you shouldn't be sorry, you should be burning me at the stake! I've spent so long fighting my instincts, so long trying not kill you all and now I can't anymore and I can't live like this! So please, for Snow, for Robin, for every other martyr I've ever destroyed, please, please kill me. I can't stay like this anymore.'

'Not even for me?'

Henry. Why, why, why did Henry have to be here? Why did he have to be in the middle of this? Why couldn't they just leave her to eliminate the Evil Queen in peace?

'Mum? Why won't you let them help you?'

 **Help you?** The Queen's laughter rings throughout Regina's head drowning out everything else. **There is nothing the heroes can do to help a woman who tries so hard to deny who she really is. Tell them dear how the darkness tempts you even now…**

The Queen pushed hard against the barriers keeping her and the darkness locked at bay in Regina's head. Now was the time to strike, now, now, now while Regina was weak and down and Henry was playing with her emotions so beautifully, she would have to break, to keep herself alive, for Henry Regina would do anything and the Queen knew it all too well. Regina would let her out to play if it meant keeping Henry safe and happy, for Henry they would both do anything…

So this was the Queen's plan all along. To bruise her and break her and bleed through the cracks. To take over little by little until there was no distinction between them anymore. Finally Regina can see it and she stifles her laughter at the realisation. They had been one once, been whole when she had allowed the darkness to consume her and the Queen desired so much to be in control once more. To have her revenge for the wrongs she had decided had been committed against her.

But now wasn't the time. Even for Henry Regina would not put the town in danger. And this was the Queen's mistake. She had underestimated how far Regina had strayed from the dark path Rumpelstiltskin had laid out for them. She had assumed that once she broke Regina down enough, she would come quietly back to consuming the darkness that had sustained them for so long.

'I'm so sorry Henry.' Regina knows she is crying again but she is done keeping it together. She is done trying to be anything for anyone anymore. She loves every single person in this room and she has no idea how or when that happened but all that matters to her now is keeping them safe.

So she's going to do it. She's going to make the heroes sacrifice.

She's not really sure that's what they'll call it after everything she's done but she doesn't care. She going to go apologise to Snow in person. She's going to pray to whichever God is listening that Hades was wrong, or lying or _something_ so she can go apologise to Robin too.

There so many mistakes she's made and so many people she need to apologise too and the best way to do all of it is to leave the land of the living. For good this time.

Tears are running down Henry's cheeks now too. 'You're not going anywhere, please mum.'

'I'm so sorry Henry but I don't have a choice, while I'm alive you're all still in danger and I can't have that.'

The Queen is furious, locked away and being demeaned by everyone she ever hated. She wants to rip them all apart, limb from bloody limb and rule over both the enchanted forest and Storybrooke. Regina will fail. She will not let that woman take away her revenge. She is too strong now, too big a presence in Regina's head for her to silence her easily. She has come too far now to get what she wants. Not to mention her magical mark is on everyone in this room a million times over and when she is free again, when Regina makes a mistake, she will destroy them all.

 **Come Regina we both know you don't have the strength left to defeat me even if you truly wanted to. One more failed attempt to get rid of me and finally I'll get to finish what we started all those years ago.**

'There's got to be a solution mum. Don't give up now, you just to have faith. We'll defeat the Queen just like every other villain and we can't lose you.' Ugh hope, the Charming family's solution to everything. The one thing Regina is sure that no matter how much she has come to love them, she will never be able to stomach. The eternal optimism is nauseating. But for Henry… For Henry, Regina will agree to try anything that means she gets to keep him a little longer.

She looks around at the faces in her hospital room, meets the eyes of all the people who should hate her but for some reason don't, and she nods. If they want to try and save her, she'll allow it. Maybe she really can be worthy of a second chance.

She can't really believe in their faith that there is a possible solution for her problem. She doesn't believe that it is in any way possible to remove her deepest and darkest of instincts and the stakes are so high that none of them can possible afford to fail. And yet still the heroes refuse to take the easy way out and just put her out of her misery.

So it's just another day in StoryBrooke then really. All in a day's work for the heroes, defeating another villain. Regina just has to make sure she can keep the Evil Queen at bay while they work or its game over. Surely it wouldn't hurt anyone if she somehow managed to find Robin inside her head either, she doesn't think, but Doctor Hopper might have something to say about that.

In the end she's not entirely sure if she believes they can do it. She's not sure that her faith in them isn't entirely misplaced, but if Henry found out she didn't believe in the truest believer there'd be hell to pay. And she's learnt that sometimes it pays to put a little faith in people and their abilities. So she's ready to take the first step. And she's surprised to find that like any good hero on a difficult journey, even with the odds staked against her, she has hope.

 **That's it! Finally I managed to overcome the very common, University invoked Lackofmotivationitis and bring you the third and final chapter of Regina's** _ **Playtime!**_ **Believe this was seriously hard to write, but I'm so glad I finally finished! Please direct all comments/queries/concerns to the review section and I'll gladly get back to you. Thanks for sticking with me guys! Minty xx**


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